'Horse Drawn Brake to Hyde Park The complete History of Taunton RFC'

Taunton Rugby Football Club are currently enjoying their first season at the highest level in a 147 year history and to celebrate the fact, a comprehensive history of the club has been re-searched and written by Somerset-based author and sports historian Kerry Miller.

The club’s ups and downs from its very humble beginnings at Fullands School to the County Ground, Jarvis Fields, East Reach Athletic Ground, Priory Park and in 2000, to their magnificent new facility at Hyde Park, are all documented along with the trials and tribulations of the players,officials and supporters.

Almost a century and a half of rugby cannot be condensed and trivialised and Kerry’s work covers the effect wars, hunger, poverty,fires, floods and pandemics have had on the town and wider area as well as the playing ups and downs in almost 500 A4 pages, fully illustrated in hard back.

Thousands of men and women have pulled on a Taunton shirt in that time and many of them are mentioned, where their own lives and deaths have coincided with happenings at the club and the work is broken up into eras rather than the more formulaic season by season.

As befits a club with such a rich history, there have been gold medal winning Olympians, future England internationals, MPs, Knights ofthe Realm, African political leaders, War heroes in abundance and famous cricketers, boxers and footballers, while Kerry has un-earthed dozens of remarkable stories, buried in the vaults of the newspaper archives.

Richly illustrated with pen pics, cartoons, match programmes, team pics and newspaper cuttings the work runs to more than 250,000 words and was published by the “Friends of Taunton Rugby” on December 4th 2021

Book Cost : £30.00 plus any postage and packing (2.2kg)that may be required and further information on how to place an order please email : tauntonrfchistory@gmail.com

• BACS : Please transfer to: Friends of Taunton Rugby / 77-50-01 / 56984360 BIC: LOYDGB21G92 / IBAN:GB23 LOYD 7750 0156 9843 60 or

• CARD : Please leave your contact details at tauntonrfchistory@gmail.comand you will be contacted or you can phone Jack Matthews on 07957 856160 who will deal with your order

• CHEQUE: Please make cheques payable and send with contact details (postal, email, phone etc.) to: Friends of Taunton Rugby, 16 Fullands Avenue, Taunton TA1 3DE

Other Sale Outlets =

• Taunton Rugby Football ClubLtd, Veritas Park, Hyde Lane, Taunton TA2 8BU

• County Sports, Somerset County Cricket Club, St James Street, Taunton TA1 1JT

• Café Culture, 49 High Street, Taunton TA1 3PR

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